Child-care providers urge Senate to add SB 177 and peer-review appeals to budget to shore up workforce and centers

Multiple child-care providers and representatives of the CEO Project asked the Senate Finance Committee to include Senate Bill 177 and to restore a peer-review appeals process tied to child-care licensing and funding eligibility.

Neferi Cook of the CEO Project said providers often absorb costs and provide supports informally—extra diapers, food and clothing—and that the sector lacks due process when licensing specialists write violations. "No 1 should lose their business due to the vagueness of rules, the ambiguity of rules," Cook said, asking senators to add the peer-review appeal process back into the budget.

Sandra Phillips (Pitter Patter Learning Center) and Tashiana Quachie (owner of multiple centers) urged adoption of Senate Bill 177, which the witnesses described as a business-friendly proposal allowing child-care workers to receive free child care for their own children in exchange for providing services. Phillips said the policy would stabilize staffing and open classroom slots for families; Quachie said many prospective hires decline positions because they cannot afford child care for their own children.

Providers asked senators also to increase eligibility for publicly funded child care and to preserve licensing due-process protections that they said are necessary to protect small providers from closure. Witnesses said the measures would not only support staff recruitment and retention but would add classrooms and improve access for families without adding undue fiscal risk.

Ending: Witnesses asked the committee to include SB 177, to increase publicly funded child-care eligibility, and to restore a peer-review appeal process for licensing decisions; they offered to provide follow-up information and data to staff.